Improvement in refrigerators



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES O. PEGK, OF PITTSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN REFRIGERATORS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 137,477, dated April 1, 1873; application filed September 14, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES O. PEcK, of Pittseld, Berkshire county, State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Refrigerators, of which the following is a specification :l i

My invention relates more particularly to improvements made upon my refrigerator for which patent was granted me June 11, 1872, and numbered 127 ,919, in which a part of the improved construction consisted in a central ice-box constructed of slats to permit free circulation of air on all sides of the ice and pend- 'ent from the top of the refrigerator, through which access was had to the box for the purpose of placing the ice in position or for the purpose of breaking it line when so placed, and in which patent, also, the entire lining of the food or storage compartment was Wood; and my improvements now consist, first, in confining the ice in the box by galvanized wire-cloth, either combined with fewer or more slats for the purpose of stili'ening and holding the cloth box in shape, or by an ice-box formed of the wire-cloth exclusively, and hungfrom the top of the refrigerator. The second part of my invention relates to covering the bottom of the foodcompartment and for ashort distance its sides-say, for about three incheswith sheet-zinc or other metal not easily corroded, for the purpose of keeping any iiuid that may be spilled or splashed from being absorbed bythe wood.

In the drawing, Figure I is a partial longitudinal section of one of my refrigerators, and Fig. II a detail view of the ice-box.

A is the wall formed with an inner wooden surface around the food-compartment. w is the top of the refrigerator, through which, by the traps b c, access is had to the ice-box B, which, as shown, has all four of its sides exposed to the air within the food-space 5 though,

without a departure from the principle of myy invention, it may be made to extend from side to side of the refrigerator, and thus present two sides for the circulation of air, or a box of the wire may be re-enforced by slats upon its sides to give greater strength to the structure. f is the metal covering to the bottom of the food-space, extending a short distance up the sides of the safe, for the purpose hereinbefore stated.

The advantages of the wire-cloth box are that the ice after being placed in the box can be broken into fine particles without any danger of flying during the process of breaking, or afterward fallingout into the body of the safe, or upon or in any of its contents, and the sieve permits the air to come uniformly in contact with the ice, and by means of being able to pulverize and retain ice in the box in that condition a very low temperature can be obtained and maintained within the safe.

A perforated metal sheet would fulfill many of the conditions required ofthe cloth, but I prefer the latter on account of its flexibility.

Now, having described my invention, what I claim as new, `and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. As a new article of manufacture, an icebox for the interior of refrigerators, constructed of galvanized wire-cloth, substantially as shown and described, and for the purpose specified.

2. In combination with the Wooden lining of a refrigerator, the sheet-metal-covered floor extending for a short distance up the sides, for the purpose and inthe manner shown and described.

CHARLES O. PEOK.

Witnesses:

CHAs. U. VAN DE MARK JOHN M. TAYLOR. 

